OAKLAND – Three fixes to steal back the momentum in this series and win the first Toronto Raptors NBA championship. Frankly the margin for taking back the momentum is so small only one of these fixes will probably get the job done. But there’s a full page to fill out here and one isn’t going to get that job done so we’ll go with three.

Start moving the ball again

It’s not a coincidence that the Raptors lowest assist totals in this series have come in their two lowest scoring games of the series.

This Raptors team is at its best when the ball is hopping from one side of the floor to the other, when everyone, or at least as many of the five as possible, can touch the ball on every play this team is just better.

Marc Gasol knows that all too well. The foundation of the Spanish National team is ball sharing and ball movement.

The Raptors are a much tougher team to defend when the ball moves.

In Game 2, they had their lowest assist total of the series with just 17 helpers on 35 made field goals. They scored just 104 points in the game. Twice this series they have been held to 105 points in Games 4 and 5 with 22 assists in the win (which was far more about Toronto’s defence holding the Warriors to just 92 points) and 19 in the loss on Monday.

When the ball moves Danny Green becomes an offensive factor. When it doesn’t his offensive numbers fall off.

Get back in the Splash Brothers’ kitchen

We’re talking right in their grill. Yes both are world class shooters and the Warriors employ world class screeners to get them open looks. But the Raptors have a world-class defence, one that can switch just about any time they want and if it means switching Fred VanVleet who gets caught up on a screen to Marc Gasol then so be it.

Gasol is plenty long and plenty smart enough to crowd an elite shooter enough to make him second guess taking that three-pointer.

The very strength of Toronto’s offence is its versatility. Lowry, Green, Leonard, Siakam and to a lesser extent Gasol can and have guarded every position on the floor.

VanVleet, when he’s out there, has done as good a job as anyone in these playoffs limiting the damage Steph Curry can inflict. But in Game 5 in Toronto, Curry got off 13 and 14 three-pointers respectively with Thompson hitting seven and Curry five.

Those numbers jumped off the page for Kyle Lowry as he sat at the podium after the Game 5 loss.

“I think the fact that Steph and Klay were able to get off 14 and 13 threes is too many,” Lowry said … For guys like them, they’re going to make – you give them that many threes, they’re going to make some. So we let them get too many threes off.” Expect that to change in Game 6.

Ramp up the chatter

The Raptors are best defensively when they are talking but that seemed to fall off in the latter stages of Game 6. At least Marc Gasol thought so.

“We’re going to continue to battle. We’re going to continue to fight no matter the score. We’ve got to do a better job of communicating defensively at the end. Both guys (Curry and Thompson) came out pretty open on those (last) two plays.”

Regardless of how this series ends, it’s human nature that the first memory will be either the relentless scoring of Kawhi Leonard or those effortless threes that barely seem to touch the finger tips of Curry and Thompson before they are launched in the direction of the basket.

But the cold, hard truth of the matter is that defence is going to win this championship. Either the Warriors are going to find a way to contain Leonard or the Raptors are going to lock down on the Warriors outside shooters and take away the most important part of their offensive game. The team that has played the better defence has won every game this series. If the Raptors are going to win it in six, the defence is going to have to prevail and that starts with more talk and better communication.